Volume is so much more fun with popcorn

So the school year is rapidly winding down, state testing is coming to an end and the students and myself are hitting that wall.  I am trying to find innovative ways to make these last few weeks run smoothly, and they in typical middle school fashion are shocked that we would actually have to "do work".  After all state testing is over, so basically there is the point of learning, right?

I have one final topic to cover in the last 14 days of school: volume.  While at NCTM and bouncing ideas off of my fellow colleagues Fawn Nguyen's blog (http://fawnnguyen.com/) was mentioned and in particular her volume lesson that was amazing.  So I went to her page, read the blog and immediately have started to follow it.

What I loved most after reading her blog, was how adaptable this lesson was, I could keep it very simple, or lead them towards maximizing volume (a calculus concept), plus there was food involved which is an instant win in middle school.
I paired the students up and handed each pair a piece of computer paper.  I explained that they needed to make a popcorn box as big as possible.  The only rule was that they had to do so by cutting the corners in order to create flaps that would fold up to form the sides.  Immediately one group raised their hand and asked: "Does big mean it can hold the most, or it has the biggest surface area?"  WIN!  In the past 3 weeks they had caught on to the idea to ask clarifying questions.  So I replied that they wanted it to hold the most popcorn.


Students began working, some immediately measuring and cutting, others discussing and drawing out possible plans.


Once they had all formed their boxes I displayed them for the class and we discussed which appeared the biggest?  How could we figure it out?  Find the volume they replied.  So while they calculated volume (I prompted them with the formula that we had discussed in an activity earlier that week) I filled their boxes with popcorn.


Then I sent them home with an extension for homework.  We talked about what we learned: the corners must be squares.  Then we talked about all the different boxes that could have been created.  Which one is the best?  How could we figure it out.  So we went through the first option (using only whole measurement), 1cm squares cut form each corner.  They recorded the volume in a chart that I provided, their homework is to come up with all the possible boxes and decide which is best.  So we will see what comes back on Monday!

My big take away is that my kids are talking, and excited to do math.  Since my return I have had numerous comments on how class is fun.  Is everyday perfect, certainly not.  Do I have those student who are off task, absolutely.  But I've decided they wont be my driving force, instead it will be the ones who are suddenly seeing a point to math and taking an interest.